In the 50s of last century, Piaggio produced an extremely powerful two-wheeler version: the Vespa TAP 150. "It's not just a motorcycle, it's a lifestyle." This is the motto of the Italian car: Vespa. This slogan is justified with a leading motorcycle manufacturer.
This manufacturer has a long history. Founded by Rinaldo Piaggio (now you know where the name Piaggio came from?) In 1884, initially it produced carriages and then the aircraft. The company began expanding in 1917 in Pisa, then in 1921 in Potedera, where Piaggio decided to militarize his product: the production of bomber engines. Strangely, later in World War II, his workshop became one of the first objects to be eaten by bombs, and was destroyed on August 31, 1943. After World War Enrico Piaggio, son of Rinaldo , founded the new Piaggio company in Florence in April 1946, with the help of the Allied Powers. Enrico, a prominent businessman, saw the need for large and cheap means of transport to travel through the war-torn Italian roads.
Inspired by the Allied Cushman motorcycle, in 1944, Enrico and his engineers designed a prototype called the MP5, also known as the Paperino.
Unsatisfied with the appearance of the car at the time, Enrico requested an aerospace engineer named Corradino D'Ascanio to redesign. And so in 1946, the MP6 was born, and it was immediately called the Vespa by its owner. 'Vespa' means wasp in Italian, is a perfect metaphor for the shape and sound of the car.
Probably quite similar to the iPhone by Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive, Vespa by Enrico and Corradino also successfully hit the market. In the 13 years since the Vespa was launched, it hit a milestone of one million units sold, and the number has even increased to 16 million today.As a long-standing car, renowned for its versatility and subtle beauty, the Vespa has evolved into many variations along its length. But you probably do not know, an old version of it, the Vespa TAP 150, deserves to be the most dangerous motorcycle in history.
What does the name TAP mean? TAP represents the Troupes Aéro Portées or the French Air Force. It turns out that in the midst of the wars of the mid-20th century: the Indochina War and the Angerie conflict, the French ordered the Piaggio. The TAP 150 was first introduced in 1956, and was upgraded in 1959. The TAP 150 has an improved chassis, a 146 cc cylinder engine, a two-stroke engine and can increase speed 140km / h. Especially the TAP is equipped with a lightweight M20 anti-tank gun, capable of penetrating all types of armor thickness up to 100mm with its HEAT detonator. Although this Vespa was designed primarily for the transport of cannons, the soldier was able to fire the cannon even when it was still attached to the vehicle.
Fighting in Vietnam, the car seems not very effective. However, when penetrating the Algerian front, it proved its worth. The TAP is designed to be parachute-free from the airplane, and is protected by hay. One pair of cars with two functions, one for loading ammunition, one for loading cannons, so they became the essential means of the two teams. In addition, the flexibility of each vehicle, including trailers, and even footwells, was about the same as the $ 500 price tag, making TAP a formidable weapon in the war. This Bazooka Vespa is not the first military vehicle produced by Enrico Piaggio. In the early 1950s, he introduced the Vespa Force Armate for the military. Although the car reached NATO standards, Enrico left the negotiating table in 1952 after declaring that he did not want to do business with the government and the military. The TAP was also used only during the Indochina War and Algerie, and was dismissed shortly thereafter.
Today Piaggio is one of the world's leading motorcycle manufacturers, with more than 70,000 employees and trading in 50 countries. Piaggio owns eight models, but the golden egg hatchet is always the legendary Vespa 'wasps', always faithful to the beautiful design from the beginning, a real hard to resist. Enrico Piaggio's name goes to legend as "the man puts Italy on two wheels".
